


Winter Jasmine

by Larilyn



Series: Darcy Has a Mission! And other Nonsense. [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Hanahaki Disease, Jane Foster & Darcy Lewis Friendship, Ladies of Marvel Bingo 2020, POV Darcy Lewis, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), WinterShock - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-16
Updated: 2020-09-16
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:26:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26489392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Larilyn/pseuds/Larilyn
Summary: Darcy has made it her mission to make Bucky Barnes smile. And Darcy never fails on her missions.Square L1 on my Ladies of Marvel Bingo Card: Hanahaki disease (which I had to look up).
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Darcy Lewis
Series: Darcy Has a Mission! And other Nonsense. [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1926583
Comments: 12
Kudos: 176
Collections: Ladies of Marvel Bingo 2020





	Winter Jasmine

“Well, this is just bat-crap crazy!” Darcy’s voice was becoming hoarse from all of the coughing. But she kept yelling.

Because, well, what was happening was, “Bat-crap crazy, Jane!”

“Shhh! Stop talking. It’s going to make it worse!”

“Worse?” Darcy’s voice was a squeak which was not what she intended. She followed it by a series of hacking coughs.

“Oh my God, this is so weird,” Jane muttered, all the while she rubbed Darcy’s back in little circles, just like Darcy’s mom used to.

“Weird,” Darcy’s legs started to feel weak so she sunk to the floor, sitting cross-legged in the middle of the lab. “Is an understatement.”

Exhausted, Darcy stretched out in the middle of the floor and closed her eyes. Vaguely she heard Jane tell someone, “She’s coughing up _Jasminum nudiflorum_.”

Darcy was in that weird place between awake and asleep when she groggily asked, “Janie, did you look up the name of the things I’m puking up?”

“You’re coughing them up, honey. Not vomiting.”

“Tomato, tomatoh.”

Darcy drifted off but she got no rest. She got stuck between a dream and a memory.

_Darcy and Jane had been at the rebuilt compound for two weeks, still settling in. The first time she saw him he had returned from his mission. Next to him, Sam Wilson was all easy smiles but Bucky Barnes was a glorious mess of sad eyes and pouting lips._

_Sure, he’d give Sam a fake half-smile when he thought he was supposed to. But a real smile? The genuine kind that made little crinkles around the eyes appear?_

_Nope._

_“I have a mission, Jane,” she had declared one day. “I shall make Bucky Barnes smile.”_

_And when Darcy had a mission, she was single-minded in its pursuit._

_She started with cookies. Who doesn’t like cookies?_

_She’d gotten a nod and a, “S’good,” from him but nothing else._

_Karaoke night had earned a half-grin and a pseudo laugh._

_The prank war backfired. He became all intense in his pursuit of revenge against Sam._

_“What do you mean they’ve gone on a mission?” Darcy shrieked at Banner one day. “I brought in shelter puppies! Puppies!”_

_Banner shrunk away from her as if he couldn’t squish her under one of his massive feet and offered, “Well… you made Wanda happy.”_

_“Which is nice. BUT NOT THE POINT.”_

_Six months into her Mission: SuperSoldierSmile she was ready to give it up._

_“Maybe…” Jane offered, “maybe he just needs to be happy before he can smile.”_

_“What do you think I’ve been trying to do, Jane?”_

_But she was right. It was all surface stuff that Darcy had been throwing at him. And surface stuff could only yield a surface smile._

_“Janie, I have a new mission. I’m going to be Bucky Barnes’s friend.”_

She woke to the sound of beeping. It was steady, repetitive, and…

“Annoying,” she finished her thought out loud. And then was overtaken by body wracking coughs.

“Don’t try and talk, Darcy,” Jane softly admonished.

Around her, she heard the doctors throwing around words like intubate, and ventilator, and Hanahaki disease.

She felt a sting in her arm as what she assumed was a sedative ran through her veins from the IV in her hand.

She let the sleep take her again.

_It was a beautiful night. The air was just crisp enough. The sky was clear. And the stars were putting on a show. She understood why he liked to sit on the roof. It was the best place to stargaze._

_“A penny for your thoughts,” she said, and immediately wished she hadn’t._

_But it earned her one of those half-smiles. “Not sure they’re worth that much, Doll.”_

_“I can listen anyway,” she offered._

_And she did._

_She listened to horrors that no man should see. And stories about Captain America that everyone should hear. She listened to life before World War Two. And life after the war with Thanos. She listened to his regrets. His fears. Eventually, even his hopes._

_And he listened to hers._

_Night after night._

_Month after month._

_Sometimes it was under the stars. Sometimes on her couch. Or the common room. Sometimes he called her on a mission. Or sent a text._

_He even sent her letters._

_And one day she realized that Bucky was just as much her best friend as Jane was._

_And one night she dreamed of his kiss._

_And on another, she dreamed of his touch._

_And the night before she left for a physics conference in Japan with Jane she realized that she was in love._

_The cough started on the flight home._

“Someone should have called me!”

His voice was angry. She’d never heard it angry before. She’d heard it sad, annoyed, tired, hopeless, and even sort of happy. But never angry.

“You were on a mission,” was Jane’s halting reply.

“To hell with the mission. You just told me she was dying!”

She felt his hand gently squeeze hers. He was gentle. Even when he was angry.

Darcy fought to open her eyes, to say something. But she couldn’t even squeeze his hand. She moved her thumb just slightly. Just enough.

She wished she could see his face when he said, “Darcy? Doll? Please…please don’t leave me. I need you. I…I love you, Darcy.”

She felt her lips pull into a smile as she drifted back off.

The dreams after that weren’t memories. She knew that for sure.

She dreamed of dancing under a gazebo covered in winter jasmine. She was wearing a white dress and Bucky was holding her in his arms.

It was such a good dream that she almost hated that she was waking up.

Her eyes felt like they had sand in them and her throat felt worse. But she could breathe. She took a deep breath to be sure. No coughing. Thank god.

Bucky was asleep at her bedside, his hand still in hers. Jane was curled up at the foot of the bed, like a cat.

She smiled softly as she took in the sight of her two best friends waiting for her to awaken. Unless…

“Am I dead?” she mumbled.

Jane, ever the light sleeper was up in a flash. “You’re awake. Bucky?”

“Don’t wake him,” Darcy admonished, “he looks cute.”

But he was already starting to stir.

“I’m getting the doctor…” Jane started.

“Wait. Am I…?”

“You’re going to be fine,” Jane promised, as she hurried out the door.

Darcy shifted her vision to him. To Bucky Barnes. And he was… smiling.

He was really, truly smiling. “Hey Doll. You scared me.”

“Buck,” she managed to say with her hoarse and squeaky voice, “I’ve had a bat-crap crazy day.”


End file.
